511. Deputy Eoin Hayes asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of applications received, the number of appeals submitted, the number of those appeals that were successful, the number of recipients, the number of beneficiaries for the latest quarterly data, in schemes (details supplied), in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51076/26]

Statistics on claim processing are collated monthly in respect of schemes which typically have a large volume of claims. Statistics in respect of all schemes requested by the Deputy are collated annually and published as part of the Annual Statistics Report. The annual figures for 2025, showing the number of claims registered by scheme over the whole year, are set out in Table 1. Claims registered figures are not available for Carer's Support Grant. Most recipients of Carer's Support Grant qualify for it automatically if they are on Carer's Allowance, Carer's Benefit, or Domiciliary Care Allowance.

The number of appeals submitted, and appeals which were decided in favour of the appellant in Q1 2026 are shown below. Note that there can be a delay between an appeal being submitted and receiving a decision. Therefore, figures for appeals submitted and appeals decided in a given time period are not directly comparable. There can be multiple reasons for an appeal, apart from a claim being rejected, such as backdating of a claim or a means test. Therefore not all appeals shown here are for rejection of a claim.

An appeal can be decided in one of two ways. When the appeal is first received by the Appeals Office, it is sent to the relevant scheme area in the department for a review. If the scheme area decides to issue a revised decision with a positive outcome for the customer then the appeal is successful and the appeal is resolved. If the original decision is upheld by the scheme area, then the appeal is sent back to the Appeals Office for a decision by an Appeals Officer. The Appeals Office can then allow, partially allow, or disallow the appeal. "Appeals Decided in Favour of Appellant" refers to appeals which received a revised decision from the scheme area or which were allowed or partially allowed by an Appeals Officer.

Back-to-Work Enterprise Allowance, Fuel Allowance, and Household Benefits cannot be appealed via the Social Welfare Appeals Office, and so figures are not available for those schemes.

Recipients for Q1 2026 are shown below, as reported in the Department's Quarterly Statistical Report for Q1 2026. These figures represent the total number of people who were received at least one payment for a given scheme in that quarter. Recipient figures are not collated on a quarterly basis for all schemes due to lower volume for these schemes and the application of statistical disclosure control. The quarterly statistics and open data published by my Department is based on payments issued. These are on the basis of the recipient customer; beneficiaries such as children benefitting from an increase for a qualified child payment, are not separately identifiable from the payments data. Recipient and beneficiary figures, which are based on the claim, are collated on an annual basis, and are provided in Table 4.

Tables 1, 2, 3 and 4